All Things Considered

Weekdays from 4 -7 p.m.

On May 3, 1971, at 5 pm, All Things Considered debuted on 90 public radio stations.

In the more than four decades since, almost everything about the program has changed, from the hosts, producers, editors and reporters to the length of the program, the equipment used and even the audience.

However there is one thing that remains the same: each show consists of the biggest stories of the day, thoughtful commentaries, insightful features on the quirky and the mainstream in arts and life, music and entertainment, all brought alive through sound.

All Things Considered is the most listened-to, afternoon drive-time, news radio program in the country. Every weekday the two-hour show is hosted by Robert Siegel, Audie Cornish, Kelly McEvers and Ari Shapiro. In 1977, ATC expanded to seven days a week with a one-hour show on Saturdays and Sundays, currently hosted by Michel Martin.

During each broadcast, stories and reports come to listeners from NPR reporters and correspondents based throughout the United States and the world. The hosts interview newsmakers and contribute their own reporting. Rounding out the mix are the disparate voices of a variety of commentators.

All Things Considered has earned many of journalism's highest honors, including the George Foster Peabody Award, the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award and the Overseas Press Club Award.

Julia Ward Howe wrote a rousing anthem for the Union in the Civil War. Since then, it's been caught in a cultural tug-of-war over who it's an anthem for — social conservatives, evangelical Christians, labor workers or civil rights leaders.

A new movie from director Spike Lee has a premise that's almost impossible to believe.

It's 1978 and a black police detective in Colorado Springs, Colo., manages to infiltrate the Ku Klux Klan. He not only gets a membership card straight from Grand Wizard David Duke, but he's also asked to lead a local chapter because he's everything they are looking for — loyal, smart and a true believer.

He establishes a relationship with David Duke over the phone. And for meetings in person, he recruits a white co-worker to go in his place.

Summertime is for road trips.Atlas Obscura and All Things Considered are traveling up the West Coast, from California to Washington, in search of "hidden wonders" — unique but overlooked people and places.

Manigault Newman was referring to what she calls the "N-word tape" — a long-rumored but never surfaced tape of Donald Trump on the set of The Apprentice allegedly using the racial slur. In her interview with NPR's Rachel Martin, Manigault Newman claims to have heard the tape and heard Trump using that slur on the tape.

But that's not what it says in her tell-all book, Unhinged, due out on Tuesday.

After a disputed presidential election, Zimbabwe has cracked down on the opposition. One of its leaders sought asylum in neighboring Zambia, but he was returned, then detained. Now he's out on bail. NPR's Eyder Peralta reports.

Charlottesville has long been known known as a charming college town — home to the University of Virginia and its founder Thomas Jefferson. After a deadly clash between white nationalists and counterprotesters on Aug. 12 last year, Charlottesville has become shorthand for racial strife.

As 17 fires burn across the state, California's legislature is grappling with what it should do to help residents cope with blazes. The most controversial question facing the state is a decision over who should pay when power lines touch off destructive blazes.

That has set off a huge political fight in the state capitol. On Thursday lawmakers heard hours of testimony on a proposal by Gov. Jerry Brown to tweak state liability laws.